Mobile Homes May Lose Guardian

A night of fury: The Danger Ahead

Backers of the mobile-home industry rushed a bill through the U.S. House on Tuesday that would fundamentally change the federal government's 22-year-old role in enforcing mobile-home safety.

With little debate, no room for amendments and no roll-call vote, the industry-backed bill passed on a voice vote in a mostly empty chamber under a suspension of regular House rules.

What critics consider a weakening of the federal safety framework would come during a year with the most U.S. tornado deaths since 1974 - and with most of those deaths occurring in mobile homes or recreational vehicles.

The legislation was sent to the Senate, but whether that body would pick up the measure today and hustle it toward enactment was not clear. In the frenzy to bring the 105th Congress to a close, the bill could be one of many that slips through to passage unnoticed as long as no one senator takes time to object.

``They sort of hot-wire these things,'' one House aide said. ``Usually at 3 in the morning.''

The Manufactured Housing Institute, a trade association, has been lobbying frantically for the legislation and helping pave the way with at least $175,000 in campaign contributions to sponsors of the bill.

The institute and other industry groups have also pumped at least $90,000 in so-called soft money into national political parties this election cycle. And still more money has bubbled up from mobile-home industry groups in individual states. For example, U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., a leading backer of the legislation, has reaped more than $82,000 from industry executives and their families in his state, according to The Charlotte Observer.

The industry-backed measure is part of a broader bill aimed at expanding homeownership of all types nationwide. The mobile-home provisions would broaden the government's emphasis from ensuring the safety of mobile homes to helping boost their sale and availability as ``affordable housing.''

In doing so, much of the power to set and enforce safety and construction rules - now in the hands of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development - would be shared with a private, 25-member ``consensus committee.''

The makeup of that committee is a big point of contention: As written, the bill divides the committee into five interest categories with five seats each, but critics say the balance of power is skewed toward the industry.

Homeowners and consumer representatives are in one voting group; state and local building inspectors make up another; and general interest groups, including engineers and private safety experts, make up a third. But the remaining two voting blocs are reserved for industry interests - with mobile-home manufacturers dominating one, and mobile-home dealers, suppliers and park owners dominating the other.

HUD oversight of mobile-home safety dates to 1976. It is credited with helping bring the homes out of the era of flimsy, tin-can trailers and into the era of modern ``manufactured homes.'' HUD also pushed through tougher wind-safety standards for mobile homes in 1994 after Hurricane Andrew.

But the industry contends the 1976 law is outdated and that the new consensus committee is needed because HUD's bureaucracy blocks innovation in home design. HUD's manufactured-housing division has endured major staff and budget cuts in recent years and often ignores industry efforts to update the standards.

Makers of manufactured homes are pushing their product as critical to the nation's housing needs - particularly for low-income working families.

``The affordability of these homes allows senior citizens, young families and single parents to realize the American dream of homeownership,'' said Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., a leading sponsor of the bill.

But the bill has been opposed by many consumer groups - most significantly the powerful American Association of Retired Persons. AARP and other groups, including the Federation of Manufactured Home Owners of Florida, say the bill short-changes the safety of people who live in mobile homes.

``The proposed legislation, written by the manufactured-housing industry, ignores the rights of consumers,'' Jerry McHale, president of the Florida group, wrote in a recent letter to U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.

The Florida group's analysis of the bill notes that mobile homes built after the 1994 HUD improvements fared better than older homes in the killer tornadoes that struck Central Florida early this year. Those storms killed 34 people in mobile homes, while no one died in a conventional home.

HUD also raised several detailed concerns about the bill in July and said it would not support it. But just last month, Senate Banking Chairman Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., threatened to block the appointment of a HUD official unless he began working harder on a compromise with the industry.